In his latest column, Matt Taibbi explains that the new "surge" Bush is set to announce this week of 20,000 troops — roughly half the NYPD — is an empty abstraction, another group of mouths to feed and cower behind the safeish walls of the various Green zones around Iraq.

If you can poke a hole in Taibbi's argument, let us know. But we're devastated. It's a nightmare.

(PLUS: Check out this video from Taibbi's reporting trip to Iraq last year.)